The freedom of religion and the freedom of education in twenty-first-century Belgium: a critical approach

In spite of recent tendencies of secularisation and religious pluralism, most Belgian schools are Catholic schools, where Roman Catholic religious education is a compulsory subject. As we will argue, this can lead to a de facto undermining of the freedom of religion and education and a shift in the system is therefore required. In the long term, the number of Catholic schools should be in proportion with the number of students/parents choosing these schools. In the short term, however, this strategy is not recommended and for pragmatic reasons, we propose a system in which religious education in substantially subsidised faith-based schools is no longer compulsory. We will argue that such a system does not lead to an infringement of the (internal) freedom of religion of faith-based institutions and that it will guarantee more educational and religious freedom than the current system does.     

A Policy Adventure: Sponsored grant-maintained schools

This paper examines the implementation of that part of the 1993 Education Act for England and Wales that concerned sponsored grant-maintained schools. The 1993 Education Act for England and Wales introduced changes that allowed the expansion of the supply side of the quasi-market of schools. As a result of that Act, since April 1994, it has been possible for groups of parents or independent sponsors to apply to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment in England or the Secretary of State for Wales to establish their own grant-maintained schools. Additionally, existing faith-based or other private schools could apply to become re-established as grant-maintained schools. This paper gives an account of the results of this 'policy adventure', and suggests that insights can be gained about the nature of the policy process through a consideration of 'policy as text' and 'policy as discourse'.     

The teacher as moral educator: comparative study of secondary teachers in Catholic schools in Australia and Ireland

This paper considers the role of the teacher in relation to moral education in Catholic schools in Australia and Ireland. Literature pertaining to faith-based schooling, the moral role of the teacher and moral education across the curriculum in both countries is outlined. The paper draws on a small-scale study involving a survey with 154 respondents and individual interviews with nine teachers. Some interesting country differences emerged that are indicative of cultural settings. These include pedagogical practices, the nature of teacher–student relationships and levels of awareness of schools' founding charisms. Some implications for moral education in faith-based schools are identified.     

‘Catholic schooling with a twist?’: a study of faith schooling in the Republic of Ireland during a period of detraditionalisation

The role of faith-based schools is increasingly debated within a context of school reform, rights and plurality in multi-ethnic societies. The Catholic schooling system in the Irish Republic (always referred to as Ireland in the text) represents an interesting case internationally because of the extent to which Catholic education is structurally embedded as normative across the education system. Yet, Ireland is in a process of detraditionalisation and wider societal change. Drawing on Bourdieu and Bernstein, and a mixed methodological study of Catholic secondary schools, the article presents a typology of Catholic schooling in transition. This identifies a continuum of Catholicity among the study schools that is mediated by dynamics of social class in an increasingly competitive and diverse system. It is argued this has implications for considering the role of a recontextualised model of Catholic faith schooling, underpinned by principles of social justice in a multicultural and more secularly oriented society.     

Student-teachers’ perspectives on the purposes and characteristics of faith-based schools: an Australian view

At a time when the faith-based identity of schools is facing serious challenges, the researchers undertook a longitudinal study of the relevant opinions, beliefs and values of student-teachers at a Catholic university campus in Australia. The focus of the current paper is on the responses of first-year students to a survey regarding their choice of secondary school, the purposes of schooling and the characteristics of Catholic schools. Relevant context are addressed including global education trends, the values and characteristics of Catholic education and relevant aspects of Australian schooling and youth culture. Regardless of religious affiliation, self-reported religiosity or type of school attended, providing a ‘safe and caring school environment’ emerged as the most important purpose of schooling and as a key reason for choice of school, while faith-based purposes and reasons received particularly low ratings. ‘Caring community’ was regarded as by far the most important characteristic of the Catholic school, followed by engagement in social justice programmes. The findings are briefly compared with parallel findings for teachers in Queensland Catholic schools.     

Catholic women teachers and Scottish education in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Catholics remained outside the Scottish educational system until 1918. The Church preferred mixed‐sex infant schools and either single‐sex schools or separate departments. In small towns and rural areas the schools were mixed‐sex. Women were considered naturally best suited to teach infants and girls, but even in boys' schools, female assistants were increasingly employed in the later Victorian period. Female religious orders were crucial for developing Catholic education in larger urban centres, but by 1918 only 4% of Scotland's Catholic schoolteachers were members of religious orders. Lay women quickly became numerically predominant in elementary education and were key to implementing the Church's strategy to enhance the respectability of a largely immigrant community through separate schools. It is the contention here that the part played by lay women in Catholic schooling needs to be considered to reflect more widely on the place of women in Scottish education.     

The Politics of Catholic Education in Zambia: 1964-2001

In colonial Zambia, the school served as a key means of Christian conversion and Church growth. During this period, the provision of education was almost the total preserve of the missionaries. Even by the time of Zambia's Independence in 1964, sixty-six per cent of the primary schools were operated by missionaries and about thirty per cent were run by Catholics. After Zambia gained its national Independence, this changed. As in other African countries, the state desired to control the educational system, which in Zambia's case it achieved not by a direct take-over but through legislation. As a result of the 1966 Education Act, the system became so centralized and bureaucratic while restrictions were so numerous that the autonomy of Church-run institutions became very restricted. At first, Catholic authorities continued to work within the system by even retaining their primary schools, but after about six years during which government tended to marginalize the Catholic agents more and more, like many Protestant groups before them, they handed over their primary schools to central government in 1973. At the same time, however, they continued to open and operate a number of secondary schools and two teachers' colleges. Nonetheless, even here, regulations created difficulties for promoting and maintaining an acceptable post-Vatican II Catholic and Christian ethos because, in accord with the Education Act, they no longer controlled intake of students, employment of staff, or direction of the curriculum. Frequently, Catholic institutions had a preponderance of non-Catholic students and sometimes of non-Catholic staff. With attempts by government to impose what it termed "scientific socialism" in the late 1970s and early 1980s, sometimes by appointment of staff who had been to Soviet bloc countries and were trained in political education, even the maintenance of a religious ethos was threatened. This continued until a change in government came in 1991. One of the first actions of the new Movement for Multiparty Democracy government was to revise the regulations affecting Church-run schools to enable them to become more autonomous and to encourage them to extend their commitment even by taking back some of the primary schools that had been given over in 1973. It thus introduced a new Education Act in 1993 which allowed Church-sponsored institutions significantly greater freedom in terms of financing, student enrolment, appointment of staff, and curriculum development. This article traces the history of Catholic institutions in Zambia between 1964 and 1991, illustrating some of the difficulties which they encountered while operating in accord with their ideals, especially the promotion of justice which became more explicit and central to Catholic education after Vatican II. It argues that the Catholic Church cooperated closely with government in a state-controlled system in the years immediately after Independence, especially in its attempts to provide an educated labor force which was so much a priority for Zambia at that time. It also supported the government's efforts to create an egalitarian society through the educational system even if it may have produced a more relevant curriculum for school drop-outs if it had greater autonomy. Catholic secondary schools never numbered more than thirty, in a country that currently has 256, and with the rise of basic schools have become even less significant statistically. Yet, Catholic institutions' academic programs merited repeated acclaim from government, while they became much sought after by parents and students, both Catholic and non-Catholic. Even when government grants from the 1980s onward became less and less adequate, Catholic institutions maintained high academic and infrastructural standards. They had books and equipment which were frequently the envy of government institutions. What they have perhaps lost in terms of proportionate quantity, they greatly gained in quality. Even within a tightly government-regulated system they made a distinctive contribution. While the Church did not entirely endorse much of the Marxist approach of the early educational reform movement, it was in accord with the ideal of equity which the movement propounded. However, when government leaned too heavily on what it termed "Scientific Socialism" in the late 1970s, the Catholic and other Church authorities resisted not because of its egalitarian direction but because of its suspected atheism. When attempts were made to replace religious education with political education and when the government introduced atheistic literature into their schools, Church authorities made frequent protests with only moderate success. Nonetheless, religious education remained a core subject in the basic curriculum while political education continued to feature. In more recent times since the change of government in 1991, the ideal of equity has become more difficult for the government to pursue because of its debt servicing and Structural Adjustment Program. Fewer funds are available for social services like health and education and so the government had to adopt a policy of cost-sharing which has made education less available to the poor. At the same time, the society is becoming more clearly divided between haves and have-nots while the educational system itself is becoming more clearly a preserve of those who have means. The Catholic Church is thus confronted more than before with a choice because of the autonomy which has been granted through the 1993 Education Act. It can remain closely integrated within the system which is not only of poor quality but, because of the government's policy of cost-sharing, tends to exclude larger and larger numbers of the poor. Alternatively, it can step out and present a model of school that continues to maintain the highest academic standards but which at the same time ensures that an acceptable Catholic, though ecumenical, ethos is recreated where the promotion of justice is pivotal. Thus, not only those who have means, but the poorest of the poor, will be accorded a fair opportunity to benefit from the educational system which has been at the heart of the Catholic endeavour in Zambia, certainly since 1964 but probably from the outset.     

The transformation of school-based sex education policy in the context of AIDS in Ireland

While AIDS was neither the initial nor the sole factor, it had a profound impact on the development of school-based sex education policy and practice in 1980s Ireland. Attempts to introduce a national programme of sex education on foot of increasing rates of crisis pregnancy pre-date the AIDS era, but these efforts had been vociferously opposed by conservative Catholic interests. The fear generated by AIDS prompted a shift in what political theorist, John Kingdon terms, the 'national mood' that? coupled with the singular determination of then Minister for Education, Mary O’Rourke, who faced down intense opposition from conservative groups and the Catholic Bishops, created the conditions needed to introduce the AIDS Education Resource – a forerunner to the Relationships and Sexuality Education programme – in post-primary schools throughout Ireland in October 1990.     

'First and foremost the church Offers Its educational service to the poor': Class,inequality and Catholic schooling in contemporary contexts

This article is based upon the assumption that a comprehensive construct of sociological enquiry in education must include engagement with specific faith-based educational systems in various settings. The analysis presented here attempts to advance that process of engagement by examining, both theoretically and empirically, the role of contemporary Catholic schooling and its relations with class, inequality and social reproduction from an international perspective. The article outlines some critical perspectives on traditional Catholic culture and education using concepts drawn from the work of Gramsci and of Bourdieu. The transformative potential of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is then discussed, followed by a consideration of contemporary empirical studies of Catholic schooling. Throughout the analysis, Gramsci's concept of an ideological 'war of position' is applied to the internal relations of the Catholic Church and of Catholic education internationally. The need for further research into the power relations of the Catholic Church is indicated.     

Return to the crossroads: Maritain fifty years on

Abstract:

Writing a little over a decade ago of developments in educational philosophy, R. F. Dearden remarked on the dearth of alternative approaches to that of conceptual analysis which predominated, at least in Anglophone cultures, at that time. One possible avenue of enquiry which he identified as conspicuously absent in this respect was the development of a distinctively Catholic approach to problems of educational philosophy, observing that a work of the mid‐war years, Maritain's Education at the Crossroads (1943), appeared to be well nigh the only modem effort in this direction. More than a decade on from this, in a climate no longer exclusively dominated by conceptual analysis – indeed, in which there is unprecedented interest in a wealth of different schools, traditions and approaches to philosophy of education – Dearden's remarks about the absence of a distinctively Catholic perspective still apply. In the following essay, therefore, the authors have undertaken, via a critical analysis of Maritain's educational speculations of half a century ago, to try to discern some of the principal issues and considerations which would need to be addressed in the interests of identifying a distinctively Catholic educational philosophy.     

Accountability in Partnership or Partnership in Accountability: Initial teacher education in Northern Ireland

This paper analyses accountability and partnership in Initial Teacher Education for the primary school sector in Northern Ireland. In considering teacher education, the paper focuses on three higher education institutions: Stranmillis University College, St Mary's University College and the University of Ulster. Of the three institutions, the Roman Catholic Church maintains St Mary's University College while the other institutions have no religious affiliations. The paper focuses on the reform of teacher education within the British Isles and sets Northern Ireland into a context of a system of teacher education which has developed new patterns of accountability. Three sources of evidence are used to analyse accountability; firstly the perception of schools that are partners in Initial Teacher Education; secondly, the views of the Education and Training Inspectorate who are responsible for accrediting teacher education in Northern Ireland; and thirdly, the views of the three university schools of education. The paper will demonstrate how teacher education in Northern Ireland is simultaneously similar to, and different from, teacher education in the rest of the developed world. It will illuminate the dimensions of accountability in the primary school sector and show how in Northern Ireland this is heavily segregated by religious denomination.     

The Christian Family as Mediator

The publication in 2011 of This is Our Faith (TIOF), the Catholic Church in Scotland's syllabus for religious education in Catholic schools, is a significant contribution to wider debates on the appropriate conceptual framework for religious education. Recent teaching of the Holy See has suggested that religious education in Catholic schools should adopt a scholastic shape and serve as a complement to catechesis. In TIOF, pedagogy, assessment issues and the relationship between cognitive and affective approaches to learning are merged in the context of a distinct faith tradition. TIOF's adoption of a catechetical vision of religious education shows how local churches can adapt Catholic teaching to their own circumstances.     

'A Fraught Path'-education as a basis for developing improved community relations in Northern Ireland

The outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s led to critical examination of the possible role of the denominationally divided education system in creating and sustaining community division. Since the early 1970s there have been a number of attempts to bring children from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds together. These have followed two major tracks, either the establishment of programmes which can operate within the denominationally segregated system (Education for Mutual Understanding) or the setting up of new integrated schools. Both approaches have moved though a number of phases but by the late 1980s both had become linked to official government policy. During the last 5 years the interaction of educational initiatives and political developments has led to considerable controversy and the resulting problems have created an uncertain future for both Education for Mutual Understanding and the planned integrated schools movement.     

Gospel Values and Catholic Education: Revitalizing the Faith Community in a Culture of “Whatever”

The Second Vatican Council introduced a new narrative for Catholic school. Rather than serving a primarily catechetical purpose, Catholic schools were to share in the Church's evangelizing mission by embodying an ideal learning community in a manner rooted in Gospel values. This paper argues that Gospel values are not exported from the Bible and applied to Catholic schools. Instead, they emerge in the experience of teaching-learning as a humanly liberating activity in relation to the human reality of God's Kingdom realized in Jesus of Nazareth and explores revitalizing Catholic education through Gospel values, without at the same time being sectarian.     

Policy Perceptions of Headteachers and Governors in Catholic Schooling

The initial focus of this research centred on a study of the extent to which government legislation and action since 1965 has threatened or eroded the Catholic Church's influence over its schools within the maintained sector [1]. However, it became clear that this focus was based on the assumption that the Catholic Church in England and Wales had a clear set of educational principles which were not only distinct from those of the state but involved different policy outcomes. Moreover, during the course of the study, evidence emerged which indicated that the Church had not given as much attention to the principles underlying its educational policy as it had to the maintenance and numerical expansion of the schools themselves. It was also realised that the nature of Catholic education cannot be determined solely by examining the Church's official documents. Whilst official Church pronouncements indicate what Catholic education ought to be, they may not correspond to a reality of what a particular Catholic community has made of Catholic education. Therefore, this paper examines some of the beliefs and attitudes of a sample of Catholics involved in Catholic schooling.     

Teaching citizenship in the faith school: qualitative evidence from separate schools in Northern Ireland

The purpose of this paper is to examine how teachers teach and students learn about citizenship education in two faith-based schools in Northern Ireland. The data show that participants in the Catholic school were confident in their own identity; teachers encouraged active engagement with contentious, conflict-related debates and students displayed empathy with other racial and religious groups. In the Protestant school, teachers avoided any reference to identity and conflict and students seemed to have limited knowledge of these issues. The findings emphasise the extent to which separate schools embody the cultural norms prevalent within each of the communities that they serve and reveal the influence which these norms have for teaching and learning about citizenship.     

Church,State and Education: Catholic education in Hong Kong during the political transition

Roman Catholic schools represent an important sector in Hong Kong's education system, both in terms of number and historical significance. As in many colonies in other periods of history, the Roman Catholic Church, in addition to other Christian Churches, had a partnership relationship with the colonial government in the provision of education in Hong Kong. Was there any change in this relationship during the political transition to 1997? Did the prospective return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) affect Catholic educational policies? This article examines these two questions in relation to the experience of other places in the world and in relation to the special nature of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, namely its link with the Vatican and its relations with China where Church schools no longer exist.     

Educational Studies And Faith-Based Schooling: Moving From Prejudice To Evidence-Based Argument

Much of the political and public debate about faith-based schooling is conducted at the level of generalised assertion and counter-assertion, with little reference to educational scholarship or research. There is a tendency in these debates to draw upon historical images of faith schooling (idealised and critical); to use ideological advocacy (both for and against) and to deploy strong claims about the effects of faith-based schooling upon personal and intellectual autonomy and the wider consequences of such schooling for social harmony, race relations and the common good of society.
  This paper will attempt to review some of these controversies in the light of recent educational and research studies. Particular attention will be given to research investigations of Catholic schooling systems in various cultural and political contexts, studies which are largely unknown outside the Catholic community.
  In addition to reviewing educational studies of faith-based schooling, the paper will offer critical appraisal of the main arguments in the debate and it will also outline a possible research agenda for future inquiry in this sector of educational studies.     

Catholic Schools in Scotland: A rejoinder to Conroy

In a recent article in this journal James Conroy presents a spirited defence of the state funding of Catholic schools in Scotland. In so doing he repeatedly but mistakenly presents me as someone who has called for the ending of such funding. He also imputes to all opponents of Catholic schools a basic hostility to Catholicism. In this response, I clarify my position, question the accuracy of Conroy's account of Scottish responses to Catholic schools, identify a crucial difference between sociology and public polemic and then consider the propriety of the state funding of faith schools.     

Religious Segregation and the Emergence of Integrated Schools in Northern Ireland

A distinctive characteristic of the education system in Northern Ireland is that most Protestant and Catholic children attend separate schools. Following the partition of Ireland the Protestant Churches transferred their schools to the new state in return for full funding and representation in the management of state controlled schools and non-denominational religious instruction was given a statutory place within such schools. The Catholic Church retained control over its own system of voluntary maintained schools, initially receiving only 65% of capital funding; however all grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland are now eligible for full funding of running costs and capital development. This paper highlights the emergence of a small number of integrated schools since the 1980s. Catholic and Protestant parents have come together as the impetus for these schools and this presents an implicit challenge to the status quo of church involvement in the management and control of schools. In practical terms the integrated schools have had to develop more inclusive arrangements for religious education, and legislation that permits existing schools to 'transform' into integrated schools also presents new challenges for the society as a whole.